TOTAL TEACHERS’ QUALITY ASSURANCE

By

Abdul Azis Wahab

IndonesiaUniversity of Education

Abstract

Educationists, policymakers, and parents hold that good teachers produce good students. Most of education practitioners and experts believe thatthe victory is in the classroom. The highest standards, the strongest accountability measures, the latest technology, and the most beautiful facilities will do little good without talented, dedicated, and well-prepared teachers. However, because the challenges faced by teachers continue to grow and to change, our definition of what good teachers are is also constantly changing. To be able to fulfill teachers with the expected qualifications, continuous quality improvement is urgently required. In this paper, I argue that quality assurance will only be meaningful if it is conducted in the whole life continuum of a teacher; namely, during teacher education, teacher recruitment, teacher induction and mentoring, teacher certification, and teacher professional development. Consequently, quality assurance in teaching profession is not a short time period, but it is a long and continuous process. It is not only the responsibility teacher education institutions, but also the responsibility of all education stakeholders, the central and local government, society and non government organizations.

1. Introduction

In Indonesia the belief that teachers play a very central part in producing quality education has been adopted not only by educationists but also by the government. At the inception of Teacher Profession Education Institute in 1954, one of the Indonesian founding fathers, Mr. Muhammad Yamin, said that there should be a tertiary education devoted to teacher training. The argument is that if we have veterinary schools educating students to be professional veterinarian, why don’t we have one to educate human beings? Following Yamin, Indonesian government has been trying to improve teacher qualifications. In 1980s, with one year education at a university, a high school graduate could be a junior high school teacher. The requirement was improved to a two year, three year and four year tertiary education in 1990s. Before 2000, the qualification of a primary teacher is two-year university education, but since then all primary teachers should have a four year university education. Even though still underpaid compared to other professions, teachers’ salary is also continually improved.

Educationists, policymakers, and parents in USA also hold that good teachers produce good students. John Stanford, as quoted by Dozier (2000), believed that “the victory is in the classroom.” Stanford understood that the highest standards, the strongest accountability measures, the latest technology, and the most beautiful facilities will do little good without talented, dedicated, and well-prepared teachers.A report on the Preparation and Qualifications of Public School Teachers in USA in 1999 has revealed the evidence that confirms what parents have always known–the quality of a teacher is one of the most critical components of how well students achieve. Studies found that students who had effective teachers greatly outperformed those who had ineffective teachers. For example, in the Tennessee study, the report says, students with highly effective teachers for three years in a row scored 50 percentage points higher on a test of math skills than those whose teachers were ineffective. An issue paper from Educational Testing Service (ETS) entitled, “Where we stand on teacher quality” reports that a correlation exist between teacher verbal ability and student achievement. Teachers who have majored in the subject they teach are better teachers of that subject than those who have not.

However, most of us would agree that if the teachers should be able to meet the challenge of the future, extra efforts are needed. Challenges faced by teacher education in both developed and underdeveloped countries are almost similar. Because of the increase of enrollments and accelerated retirements, Indonesia is in the shortage of teachers, especially in small and remote islands far away from the local administration center. Consequently, many school districts, given shortages of qualified teachers, hire individuals without sufficient knowledge and skills, or one teacher teaches the total numbers of hours beyond the limit stated by the rule. Indonesia also faces equity problems. Students in poor or slums or remote areas—those who need the best teachers—often are taught by those who are least qualified.Qualified teachers mostly work in favorite urban schools where they might be able to teach in more than one school to increase their take home income, while those who are unable to compete will choose to teach in rural areas with limited income. Student enrollments are high, and while schools in rural and urban settings struggle to hire qualified teachers to meet their needs, the wealthier suburban schools have difficulty finding the science, mathematics and special education teachers they need. Many teachers who got masters degree do not enjoy teaching in their previous place, but trying to teach at university levels for better salaries.Qualified teachers teaching in remote areas but separated from their spouses usually reunite with their couples who are in fact living in suburban or urban areas and result in the lost of teachers in the remote ares. This burgeoning demand for new teachers and an increasing demand for high quality in the teacher workforce have put a spotlight on the preparation of teachers. Researchers, policymakers and the education community have grappled with the problems that face teacher recruitment and preparation such as the difficulty in recruiting the ablest students, under-investment in teacher education, inadequate pre-service time for teacher candidates to acquire the content knowledge, and pedagogical knowledge they need to be successful in the classroom.

As the challenges are quite big and widespread, we need more good teachers who would be able to cope with the problems. However, producing qualified teachers will not be sufficient if it heavily relies on partial efforts. To this end, I argue that good teachers are the result of synergy among teacher education, recruitment, induction and mentoring, and professional development. Producing good teachers requires that the quality of the processesin all aspects of the teaching continuumas described below is assured. I believe that without total quality management of the whole professional life of a teacher, teacher quality assurance will not be fruitful.

Figure 1

Teacher Profession Continuum

2. What is meant by Quality?

Whenever quality in education is discussed it may be important to reflect on what is understood by the term ‘quality’. Many educators, researchers and politicians have tried to define this term and a number of different definitions can be found in the literature. One almost classical definition is the way in which Coombs described quality in his book The World Crisis in Education: the View from the Eighties. “Qualitative dimension means much more than the quality of education as customarily defined and judged by student learning achievements, in terms of traditional curriculum and standards. Quality also pertains to the relevance of what is taught and learned - to how well it fits the present and future needs of the particular learners in question, given their particular circumstances and prospects. It also refers to significant changes in the educational system itself, in the nature of its inputs (students, teachers, facilities, equipment, and supplies); its objectives, curriculum and educational technologies; and its socioeconomic, cultural and political environment.” (Coombs, 1985, p. 105).

The World Bank has also tried to define quality. In the report Priorities and Strategies for Education (1995) it dealt with education policy issues and made the following observation concerning quality: “Quality in education is difficult to define and measure. An adequate definition must include student outcomes. Most educators would also include in the definition the nature of the educational experience that helps to produce thus outcomes - the learning environment.” (World Bank, 1995, p. 46). There is also a large amount of other reports and publications discussing quality from a perspective of quality assurance and quality improvement. Spanbauer discusses the need for schools to have a quality policy. As an example he uses the Fox Valley Technical College Policy: “It is the policy of FoxValleyTechnicalCollege to provide quality instruction and service consistent with the highest educational standards. We endeavor to provide precise, prompt, and courteous service and instruction to our students, to one another, and to the employers who hire our graduates and use our services.” (Spanbauer, 1992, p.11).

Morgatroyd and Morgan propose three basic definitions of quality: 1) “Quality assurance refers to the determination of standards, appropriate methods and quality requirements by an expert body, accompanied by a process of inspection or evaluation that examines the extent to which practice meets these standard;” 2) “... contract conformance, where some quality standards has been specified during the negotiation of forming a contract;” 3) “Customer-driven quality refers to a notion of quality in which those who are to receive a product or service make explicit their expectations for this product or service and quality is defined in terms meeting or exceeding the expectations of customers.” (Morgatroyd & Morgan, 1994. p. 45-46). Morgatroyd and Morgan argue that the quality concept is undergoing a development from what has been referred to as “quality assurance” to “contract conformance” and most important to a “customer-driven” perspective.

There are, however, two broad elements that most observers agree characterize teacherquality: (1) teacher preparation and qualifications,and (2) teaching practices. The first refersto preservice learning (e.g., postsecondaryeducation, certification) and continued learning(e.g., professional development, mentoring). The second refers to the actual behaviors and practices that teachers exhibit in their classrooms (U.S.Department of Education, 1996). Of course,these elements of teacher quality are notindependent; but excellent teacher preparation andqualifications should lead to exemplary teachingbehaviors and practices.

We need to assure quality since we see that education over the last decades has developed towards lower quality. We see also an increased concern about education, the quality of education and the best way of spending money in education. According to the World Bank, 1994, lack of quality is a major problem in many education systems: “The quality of education is poor at all levels in low- and middle-income countries. Students in developing countries have a mean level of achievement below that in industrial countries, and their performance shows a much greater variance around the mean.” (p. 3). UNESCO's International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century (often referred to as the Delors Commission after its chairperson and former EU Commissioner Jacques Delors) published in 1996 its report Learning: the Treasure Within. In this report they concluded that: “... a greater focus on quality is desirable everywhere, even in countries where all children are enrolled in basic education” (p.120). It can be noted that quality has since the eighties become a key concept in the education discussion. Everyone wants to improve the quality in education.

3. What are the characteristics of quality teachers?

The OECD report Quality in Teaching (1994) defines teacher quality in five dimensions: 1) knowledge of substantive areas and content; 2) pedagogic skill, including the acquisition and ability to use a repertoire of teaching strategies; 3) reflection and ability to be self-critical, the hallmark of teacher professionalism; 4) empathy, and commitment to the acknowledgement of the dignity of other;and 5) managerial competence, as teachers assume a range of managerial responsibilities within and outside the classroom (OECD, 1994, p. 13-14). The report adds: “These dimensions of teacher quality should not be seen in terms of narrow behavioral competencies, but more in terms of dispositions. Teacher quality should be regarded as a holistic concept, i.e. as a gestalt of qualities rather than as a discrete set of measurable behaviors, to be developed independently from each other. The integration of competencies across these dimensions of teacher quality is thought to mark the outstanding teacher.” (OECD, 1994, p. 14). Another interesting approach to describe the good teacher is the ten competences identified by Perrenoud (1999):

• Organizing student learning opportunities

• Managing student learning progression

• Dealing with student heterogeneity

• Developing student commitment to working and learning

• Working in teams

• Participating in school curriculum and organization development

• Promoting parent and community commitment to school

• Using new technologies in daily practice

• Tackling professional duties and ethical dilemmas

• Managing own professional development

Quality can be regarded from different perspectives. For many students quality is a fair system where their skills are awarded and where their achievements are acknowledged. For example, a good teacher can be perceive as the one who “is very clever, doesn’t shout, helps you every day, is not bossy, has faith in you, is funny, is patient, is good at work, tells you clearly what to do, helps you with mistakes, marks your work, helps you to read, helps you with spelling and has got courage.” (MacBeath et al., 1996, p. 55). For parents, quality means a school where the students are safe and where they can learn in a stimulating environment. For many teachers, quality is a school where the students want to learn and where the working conditions are good.

When the characteristics of the good teacher are discussed, it is important to keep in mind that no one is born to be an outstanding teacher. Good teaching it is a result of education, training and experience. Educational Testing Service (ETS) believe that competent teachers should have the following knowledge and skills: 1) Basic academic reading, writing and math, 2) Thorough knowledge of the content of each subject taught, appropriate to the levels of their students, 3) Both generic and content-specific knowledge in areas such as child development, classroom management, motivating children to learn, interpreting and using assessment data, individualizing instruction, aligning content the state standards, developing appropriate instructional materials, and working with children with disabilities or from other culture, and 4) Actual hands-on ability and skills to use the above types of knowledge to engage students successfully in learning and mastery.

4. How are teachers prepared in Indonesia?

In 1954, Indonesian government established Teacher Education Institutes (PTPG) whose main responsibilities, among others, are producing primary and secondary teachers, counselors, and education administrators. In 1957, the institutes were integrated to universities becoming Faculty of Education (FKIP). In 1963, some of the Faculty of Educations was separated from its universities to become Institute of Teacher Training and Pedagogy (IKIP), while others still belong to universities. Some IKIPs, then, changed to universities with the responsibility of educatingprospective teachers and non-prospective teachers. Even though converted to university, IKIP Bandung retained “education” label on its name becoming Indonesia University of Education (UPI) with the responsibility of preparing graduates to work on teaching and non-teaching profession.Education label explicitly indicates that UPI is highly concerned withteacher education and believe that preparing teachers should be seen as the same as preparing other profession such as surgeons or lawyers.

Teacher training institutions like UPI train their students to acquire both subject skills and teaching skills.The first covers the content of the subjects to be taught, while the latter includes skillsneeded to be professional teachers such as assessment, teaching and learning strategies, research in education skills, curriculum and material development. In addition, the students also study general subjectspreparing them to be religious, autonomous, democratic, pluralistic person responsible for the prosperity of the country. Finally, the students also learn supporting subjects such as statistics, entrepreneurship, artsand literary appreciation. Teacher education system can be made integrative or consecutive. Integrative means that the students at the same time are trained to acquire both academic and professional skills, while consecutive means that theyfirst study their subjects or disciplines; then, they learn teaching skills.

We do believe that integrative model is much more appropriate for quality teachers’ education because being a teacher is not only a matter of getting a job. It is a profession that needs dedication, motivation, enthusiasm, persistent, struggle, sacrifices, and love. Teaching is an art whose development will not be acquired in a short period of time. It is doubtful if one to three month teaching practice will produce quality teachers. Teaching skills may be acquired in one or two semesters. However, the internalization and cultivation of teachers’ spirit, dedication, and maturity may take longer time.

5. Quality Assurance in Teacher Training Institutions

The purpose of the implementation of quality assurance in teacher education institutions is to improve national competitiveness, autonomy and organizational health. To reach the objectives, three approaches are employed. First, every teacher training institution is required to administer Study Program Evaluation through Self-Assessment (EPSBED). By this measure, every study program is obliged to identify its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Then, find out the strategic steps to pursue the opportunities and anticipate the possible threats. Second, every teacher training institution should be accredited by either national (BAN-PT) or international accreditation standard (e.g. British Standard, ISO, Malcolm Balridge Awards, etc.). Third, every university should have internal quality assurance system.

As we can observe in the matrix below, EPSBED and quality assurance can be internally or externally driven. It is externally driven because every funding launched by the government requires the implementation of EPSBED and quality assurance. It is internally driven because the implementation of the two measures is up to the readiness of the institution itself. Some higher institutions have already administered EPSBED and quality assurance, while some others are still struggling to understand what and how to do them. Through EPSBED, a university tries to collect, process, and store data and information. Accreditation, which is aimed at assuring the accountability of higher education implementation, now is moving towards obligatory implementation. Study programs which are not accredited will be announced publicly and public are suggested to stay away from such kind of institutions. Quality control from international accreditation bodies is also endorsed. Directorate General of Higher Education is trying to identify study programs and other supporting units which have already got ISO certificates.